Another N-Gage game review on our sister site: OviGaming.com - Ewan plays through Tomb Raider: Underworld and pronounces it very disappointing, with on-rails gameplay throughout and with many of the puzzles and features from previous incarnations removed.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've sighted the first video of a hardware-accelerated version of Bounce (on the N900), and reviewed a selection of games from Ovi Store for the 5800 and N95. See below for links.
Tzer2 goes all provocative in a piece on our sister site, OviGaming.com, asking what on earth Nokia are up to with their games strategy. On the one hand, with parts of the ecosystem stalling and people leaving, on the other with new initiatives, URLs and game titles. It does seem a mystery, so get involved with the discussion.
Lara Croft has returned to N-Gage in Tomb Raider: Underworld. This time the aim of the game is to retrieve Thor's Hammer. Tomb Raider was one of the more popular N-Gage classic games, and this new version has a similar style. But in contrast to the original version, which was a full port of the classic version of the game, Underworld is a simple N-Gage port of a limited Symbian version of the Underworld game which was released last year. Oh dear.
More stylophone, less guitar. Guitar Hero World Tour feels like a re-union of The Flying Pickets for Ewan. With limited graphics and Java-quality MIDI music, and without a plastic accessory in sight, this Ovi Store title is more 'cash in' than 'rockin'. Here's the All About Symbian review.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing lots more games, we have another batch of Ovi Store client installation walkthroughs, and we'd like to know which games you want us to review. See below for a complete list of links...
As it's the weekend we've got a round-up of eight new game reviews over on Ovi Gaming, as well as a few other features. Following our new format, the reviews are brief but include long gameplay videos and lots of screenshots, to give an idea of what the game is really like. All the relevant links are below...
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been lamenting the rather poor service provided by Ovi Store's search function. However, instead of just complaining about it we've set up an alternative unofficial Ovi Store search using Google's Custom Search Engine. You can try Unofficial Ovi Store Search over on Ovi Gaming. This is still very experimental, so let us know what you think in the comments thread.
Over on AAS's sister site Ovi Gaming, we've been continuing our review of Ovi Store games available for Symbian devices. Our latest batch of reviews includes five titles, an incredible three of which have won our Recommended award: slick arcade game Bubble Popper Deluxe, charming puzzler BlockGO, old favourite Tower Bloxx (aka City Bloxx), arcade conversion Ms. Pac-Man and Yahtzee-clone Yacht II. All of these reviews come with long gameplay videos and lots of screenshots. The games were reviewed on a Nokia 5800, but they should also be available for most other S60 5th and 3rd Edition devices too.
The Ovi Store application is available on quite a number of Nokia phones, including the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. We've done a brief video (embedded below) which shows how to find and install Ovi Store on the Nokia 5800, either through the "Download!" icon or by visiting the Ovi Store website on the phone's browser. You may also be interested in our videos on how to install Ovi Store on the Nokia N95, and how to use the Ovi Store application.
Over on Ovi Gaming, Ewan Spence has been putting Nokia's exclusive music game Dance Fabulous through its paces, and apparently it is rather good... The game was developed for Nokia by Digital Legends, the same people who did the excellent fighting game ONE, and features exclusive new music created by Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) and Cindy Gomez. You can also use your own music if you prefer.
Over on All About Symbian's sister-site Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing some big-name titles recently, and also added our usual gameplay videos and screenshots alongside the reviews. See below for the complete list of links...
Over on Ovi Gaming we've just done mini-reviews, screenshots and gameplay videos of six lower-price games (in descending order of quality): excellent accelerometer-based tilting maze game Labyrinth Touch, noughts and crosses on a larger grid with Tic Tac Toe Touch, chess-inspired puzzle game Knight's Puzzle, Mr Pringle avoiding a soaking in Log Jam, testing whether you've got dementia with Viitrio Memory Match, and a rather more boring noughts and crosses with Viitrio Tic Tac Toe.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've got lots of new vids: How to install the Ovi Store application on the Nokia N95, a more general look at how to use the Ovi Store application, a gameplay video of old-style arcade shoot-em-up My Little Tank, and a gameplay video of plasticine-based scrolling shooter Platypus (think Wallace & Gromit crossed with R-Type).
In an OviGaming.com editorial, Ewan discusses the dual existence of the (virtually identical) standalone and N-Gage versions of Sims 3 - will this be a problem, will this duality give Nokia and EA much useful information and does it highlight any flaws in the current muddled system?